WP claims that Russia and China are planning to build a tunnel from Crimea to the Russian Federation. This is technically possible, and China has the necessary experience and equipment, although construction will take at least ten years.
The Washington Post reports Russia’s alleged plans to build a tunnel from the peninsula with Chinese help, citing intercepted emails provided to the publication by unnamed Ukrainian officials.
The publication has verified the messages and claims they are genuine, citing company registration documents that confirm that a Russian-Chinese consortium was recently created in Crimea with the participation of the individuals mentioned in the emails. Businessmen with government connections from the Russian Federation and China in October secretly discussed plans to build an underwater tunnel that would connect Russia with the occupied Ukrainian Crimea, and for this they created a “consortium” writes The Washington Post:
“The negotiations, which included meetings in late October, were prompted by growing Russian concerns about the safety of the 11-mile bridge across the Kerch Strait.”
Emails circulated among consortium officials in recent weeks refer to meetings with Chinese delegates in Crimea. One of them, dated October 4, describes CRCC (China Railway Construction Corporation) as “ready to provide construction of railway and road facilities of any complexity in the Crimean region.”
CRCC is a state-owned company that has built many of China’s largest road and rail networks. It has established significant ties with Russia in recent years, with projects including the expansion of the Moscow metro system completed in 2021.
The company did not respond to requests for comment. The head of the Russian-Chinese consortium, based in Sevastopol, refused to answer the publication’s correspondent’s question about the tunnel project. Russian businessman Vladimir Kalyuzhny, who according to documents is the general director of the consortium, rejected this question and said that he would not provide any information to “hostile media,” abruptly ending the conversation.
His response contradicted how the proposal was described in internal emails. In a message sent last month to a Russian official who is one of Crimea’s main representatives in Moscow, Kalyuzhny said he had “a letter from our Chinese partners about the readiness of one of the largest companies in China, CRCC, to participate as a general contractor in the construction of the Kerch tunnel Strait”.
The email, the publication clarifies, was addressed to Georgy Muradov, who is listed as the permanent representative of the Republic of Crimea under Russian President Vladimir Putin. Muradov also did not respond to requests for comment.
Six of the consortium’s nine founding directors are not listed in the registration files. The emails also show China’s attempt to maintain secrecy. One of the letters stressed that CRCC would only participate subject to “strict adherence to complete confidentiality” and that the company’s name would be replaced by “another, unrelated legal entity” in any contracts. Another email mentions a Chinese bank willing to “convert its dollar funds into rubles for transfer to Crimea to finance (consortium) projects.”
The emails also cite discussions between the consortium and a CRCC executive identified as Xu Huaxiang, the same name as a Chinese national listed as vice president and deputy general manager of the company’s international division. Attempts to contact Huaxiang were unsuccessful. The publication notes:
“Given the risks of sanctions and sabotage, US officials and experts expressed surprise that the CRCC would risk intervening in this matter.”
Experts on major international transport projects say building a tunnel under the Kerch Strait is technically possible, and China has the necessary experience and equipment. But it will be a huge undertaking, comparable in scale to the tunnel between Denmark and Germany: eight years in the making, it will cost more than $8.7 billion and will be the longest tunnel in Europe when completed at the end of the decade.
Experts say it is unlikely that the Kerch tunnel will be completed in time to help Russia’s war effort. However, Moscow may view it as a long-term investment that should provide safe communication with Ukrainian territory, which could be disputed for decades.
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